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  %INTEGRITY PERSONAL COMMUNAL HONEST OPEN DIALOGUE 890925

     Personal  and communal integrity depend in  essential
ways upon open and honest dialogue, two-way communication.

     When open and honest communication has broken down it
is  more difficult to restore such communication  than  it
would have been to avoid the break-down of communication.

     When open and honest communication is broken down the
basis  for  informed wise decision making  is  undermined.
Then  the  information which is needed for  wise  decision
making  can  not be reliably shared in ways  which  elicit
trust  in  an  immediate way.  Open  and  honest  dialogue
provide  the  way  to acquire trustworthy  information  to
serve as the basis for informed and wise decision making.

     The  restoration  of  wise  decision  making  becomes
possible only when its importance is recognized by careful
consideration of the consequences of the disintegration of
open  and honest communication.  The loss of personal  and
communal  integrity  involves  the loss of  all  that  can
reasonably  be  regarded as worthy of respect.   When  the
importance  of  that loss is recognized the foundation  is
laid for seeking to restore open and honest communication.

     So  long  as  people who  have  broken  communication
channels  continue to tragically believe that it is  their
responsibility  to break communication in prescribed kinds
of situations, they will not be able to recognize that the
loss of personal and communal integrity is the loss of all
that  can reasonably be regarded as worthy of respect.  In
ultimately tragic ways they will fulfill their  misleading
ideals   and   values   through  personal   and   communal
disintegration.

     It     is    tragic   when   the    break-down     of
communication  occurs between persons who have  previously
been  friends  within relationships of  mutual  trust  and
respect.   The greater the level of initial integrity  the
greater  the  tragedy  if  it  disintegrates  through  the
influence of misleading ideals and values.

     In   extreme cases,   misleading ideals  and   values
may  lead  a  person of integrity into the  hell  of  self
rejection.

     In  self rejection the channels of internal  personal
communication  break  down and the  disintegrating  person
does not know their own mind,  body, soul, self,  desires,
experiences,    etc.    as  a  coherent  whole.    Through
disintegration of communication,  what was whole becomes a
collection  of  mutually  suspicious parts  which  do  not
communicate  openly  and  honestly with  each  other.   It
becomes difficult to use language to describe the  process
because  the categories of description become confused and
inappropriate  to  the description of a real person.   The
person  who is in such a state of confusion is faced  with
an even more difficult situation than others who watch the
disintegration from outside the disintegrative process.

     The  recovery  of integrity is possible when   it  is
recognized  through experience that personal and  communal
integrity  depend in essential ways upon open  and  honest
dialogue,   two-way  communication.  Yet,  in a  state  of
disintegration  such recognition is blocked to the  extent
that  it appears impossible that open and honest  dialogue
is  that  important.   The breaking down of  dialogue  may
appear  to  be one technique among many  techniques  which
should  be  used  to  fulfill what  are  regarded  as  the
ultimate  important responsibilities,  to be in control of
certain personal processes and relationships.

     When disintegration is regarded as a technique  which
may properly be used by technocrats in the service of what
are regarded as ultimate ideals and values,  the stage has
been set for both personal and communal disintegration. On
such a stage the ideals and values which are trusted  lead
the  participants in the drama through progressively  more
tragic   interactions   between  personal   and   communal
disintegration.

     When   personal  and  communal   disintegration   are
regarded  as the ultimate threats to all values and ideals
which  are  worthy of respect,  the stage is set for  both
personal  and  communal integration.  On such a stage  the
myths,   stories,  parables and lives of  the  integrative
actors  lead  the participants through progressively  more
joyous steps of personal and communal integration.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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